St. Paul Downtown Airport, also known as Holman Field, is an airport just across the Mississippi River from downtown Saint Paul. It is one of the Twin Cities "reliever airports" operated by the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC). The airport has three runways and serves aircraft operated by corporations in the local area, a flight training school and the Minnesota Army National Guard aviation unit. The Holman Field Administration Building was designed by Clarence Wigington and built in 1939 by WPA employees. It serves as the control building for the St. Paul Downtown Airport.

During World War II, Northwest Airlines employed up to 5000 people at the site, modifying new B-24 Liberator bombers, some of which received the highly classified H2X radar, which proved to be an invaluable tool in the European theater.
The Holman Field Administration Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

Memories and Stories

Holman Field was named for Charles W. "Speed" Holman, who was a stunt pilot, barnstormer, wing walker, parachutist, airmail pilot, aviation record holder and airline pilot. He was the first pilot hired by Northwest Airways in 1926. He flew air mail routes across Wisconsin and to North Dakota. In 1928, Holman set a world's record of 1,433 consecutive loops in an airplane in five hours over the St. Paul Airport. He died in an accident during an air show in Omaha in 1931.

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Site History

After his capture in New Orleans on May 1, 1936, Alvin Karpis, accompanied by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and scores of special agents, was flown to Holman Airport and brought to St. Paul to stand trial for the Hamm and Bremer kidnappings.[1]